Twitter is not just a noisome bird! Twitter.com is all the buzz in the social networking world. It is a micro-blogging platform that simply asks the question, “What are you doing right now?” Millions of users from all
over the planet in many different languages answer that question all day and night by sending ‘tweets,’ or short, 140 character messages, in a stream created by adding followers, who in turn follow you and read your tweets.
While twitter is a lot of fun to use, and it can get to be addictive and a distraction, it can also be used to raise your public profile and that of your business, brand or cause. Twitter has become so popular that mainstream media journalists often quote tweets in print and on the evening news.
“But what’s all this talk about twitter and tweeting about?” you may well ask. Well, in this article we are going to look at ways that you can use twitter to send traffic to your blog or website.
Setting up your basic profile on twitter is simple and easy. If your main purpose for being on twitter is to get traffic for your site and get more customers then you’ll want to customize your twitter profile. You want your profile to be consistent with your existing brand or your online presence. You can have a custom twitter background created for you, or you can tweak an existing twitter background template if you know your way around Photoshop. Include your photo even if you are using a company logo. People want to know that they are talking to a real human being.
Fill out your profile and include a compelling bio blurb that will appeal to your audience. Add your location and a link back to your site. When users choose to follow you, you will receive an email from twitter with a link to that person’s twitter profile. You can then respond to them thanking them for following you and send them a link to your blog. Keep this low key because some twitter peeps (that’s what the Twitter crowd call people) hate this and consider it spamming.
To develop your community of followers you can try a few things. On the twitter.com web site you can send an invite to everyone (or just particular ones) in your yahoo or gmail email account. You can also do a search for followers by topic or name on twellow.com.Twellow is pretty much the “Yellow Pages” of Twitter. MrTweet.com will analyze your friends list, let you know who you are following that is not following you back, and they will recommend influential people that you should be following. Another strategy is to find thought leaders in your industry who have already made a big splash on twitter and follow the people who are following them.
There are twitter groups that you can join, which will give you the opportunity to get more exposure within your subject area. Linking your twitter profile with your Facebook.com profile is another way to increase your messages reach within your network. Find a twitter app that will help you manage your tweets and your time.
Decide on what your twitter strategy will be and keep it consistent. Be a real person and engage with your followers. Twitter has been called the new ‘water cooler’ where people gather and swap news, resources, and random thoughts along with marketing messages. For a more in depth discription of Twitter and the other most popular Social Medias check out Social Traffic Intelligence.
